Rwanda govt plans to develop Rusumo border to enhance trade with Tanzania

The Government of Rwanda has contemplated revamping operations at Rusumo border post with an objective to enhance its capacity to cope with the growing traffic of cargo. The officials visited the border on April 14 to assess existing challenges and how to address them.

Officials included the Minister for Trade and Industry, Soraya Hakuziyaremye; the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr Richard Sezibera, and the Minister for Infrastructure, Amb. Clever Gatete. Fred Mufurukye, the governor of Eastern Province also accompanied the ministers with other customs officials, security officials and local leaders to the border.

Officials toured various facilities at the border with Tanzania before holding a closed meeting where they discussed trade-related activities. With the Gatuna border post under construction, Rusumo is now Rwanda’s busiest border, as reported by The New Times.

A recent statistic says that 95 per cent of Rwanda’s imports pass through Rusumo border, ferried from Dar es Salaam port. As Gatuna border post under construction, Rusumo is now Rwanda’s busiest border. Around 270 heavy trucks pass through Rusumo border every day, making cargo clearance process hard with the limited number of staff.

“This is one of our most important border posts and the meeting and the field visit here were to assess how we can improve trade flow on this border post between Tanzania and Rwanda,” Soraya Hakuziyaremye said. “Some of the challenges that were raised here, include the (slow) pace of flow of trucks that are cleared, and lack of enough staff from different institutions that work here. We have taken action and decisions on how to increase personnel and how we can upgrade infrastructure around here,” Hakuziyaremye opined.

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